Sunday, 9 December 2012

Top of the Lake
Jane Campion’s alternative TV miniseries heads to Sundance
The main event at January’s Sundance Film Festival may turn out not to be a movie at all, but Jane Campion’s six-part miniseries, “Top of the Lake.” Starring Elisabeth Moss and the Scottish actor Peter Mullan,
the layered drama will screen just once in Park City, on Sunday,
January 20, prior to airing on the Sundance Channel, which co-produced
it with the BBC.
Working on separate episodes, Campion shared the directing duties with Garth Davis. The series, co-written by Campion and Gerard Lee,
has been blurbed as follows: “’Top of the Lake’ is a powerful and
haunting mystery about the search for happiness in a paradise where
honest work is hard to find. Set in the remote mountains of New Zealand,
the story follows the disappearance of a twelve-year-old, five-months
pregnant, who was last seen standing chest deep in a frozen lake.
“Robin Griffin [Moss] is a gutsy but inexperienced detective called
in to investigate [the girl’s] case. During the investigation, she
collides with Matt Mitcham [Mullan], the missing girl’s father and local
drug lord. Robin will find this the case that tests her limits and
sends her on a journey of self-discovery.”
Holly Hunter (Campion’s “The Piano”), David Wenham (“The Lord of the Rings”) co-star. Lucy Lawless (“Xena,” “Spartacus”) appears in the first episode. It was photographed by Adam Arkapaw (the upcoming “Lore”).
What sounds on the surface a less perverse “Twin Peaks,” or a
mystical “CSI,” is likely to require trenchant feminist analysis given
the involvement of Campion, director of “An Angel at My Table,” “The
Portrait of a Lady,” and “In the Cut,” as well as “The Piano.”
During an onstage interview at the Cannes TV market Mipcom in
October, the Australian auteur noted that the series is thematically
interested in “post-menopausal” over-40 women. As the Hollywood Reporter
recorded it, “they are a ‘fascinating’ subset that no one is typically
interested in dwelling on, she explained. The women are a self-contained
counterpoint to the patriarchal structure surrounding them, and Holly
Hunter is the central figure in their encampment.”
“We’re trying to go against the police procedural aesthetic,”
co-writer Lee added. Campion said she was inspired to choose the
long-form TV format after watching “Deadwood,” “Mad Men” (in which Moss
plays Peggy Olson), and “The Killing.” She and Lee “determined there was
‘more freedom’ and ‘fewer restraints’ imposed upon creators nowadays in
TV than in film.” The chorus agreeing with her on this — and television
drama’s current supremacy over film drama — has grown exponentially in
2012.
Source: Blouin Artinfo

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